Challenges for forest monitoring in developing countries: global and national data experiences in UN-REDD capacity building Dr. Inge Jonckheere FAO of the UN, Forestry July 2016 Lima, Peru
UN-REDD Programme Supports countries benefit from REDD+ (UNFCCC) National REDD+ Strategies and Readiness Established in 2008 by FAO, UNDP & UNEP Response to UN Framework Convention Climate Change (UNFCCC) Bali Action Plan 2007 Offers UN Joint Program: Delivering as One UN Agreed delivery platform with Forest Carbon Partnership (FCPF) and Forest Investment Programme (FIP) Current contributions: US$ about 300 million (without pledges) from donors Norway, Denmark and Spain
REDD+ Strategies 6 UN-REDD Work Areas MRV and Monitoring REDD+ Governance Stakeholder Engagement Multiple Benefits of forests/redd+ Transparent Equitable Accountable Management of REDD+ Payments REDD+ as Catalyst of Green Economy
Lead Implementation Role MRV in the NP: FAO Monitoring (M) & Measurement, reporting, verification (MRV) Cornerstone for carbon monitoring national communications to UNFCCC one starting point for FR(E)L establishment supports national / sub-national implementation of incentive systems Support to policy formulation and feedback knowledge of drivers of change information on multiple benefits
FAO S RESPONSE- main outputs Country support (64) COMBINED PROJECTS AND EFFORTS UN-REDD (Norway, CE, Denmark, Spain, Japan, Luxemburg) UN-REDD (Norway, CE, Denmark, Spain, Japan, Luxemburg) FAO-Finland (Finland) NFMA (Sweden, Finland, USA, Brazil, Angola, FAO TCP, GEF) 18 pilot countries 32 countries 5 countries 19 countries * Several countries are supported by more than one programme (e.g. Vietnam)
NFMS M Activity Data Satellite Land Monitoring System Emission Factors National Forest Inventory GHGs Inventories R 2005 LULUCF Inventory UNFCCC Inventory compilation QA/QC Emission Inventory Database V UNFCCC Expert Reviews
MRV: Measurement The IPCC s methodological approach to calculate anthropogenic GHG emissions by sources and removals by sinks related to forest land.
MRV: Measurement Measurements of area change (Activity Data) and forest carbon stock changes (Emission Factors) This information provides the basis to compile a GHG inventory Activity data Area / forest cover change data (hectares per year) Achieved using a satellite land representation system (SLMS) Emission factors Forest carbon change Assessment of biomass, carbon stocks and emission factors Data are obtained from a national forest inventory (NFI) GHG Inventory GHG assessment to determine national mitigation performance Based on the data collected from the NFI and SLMS UNFCCC templates available ACTIVITY DATA Satellite Land Representation System 2005 x EMISSION FACTORS National Forest Inventory = GHG Inventory
Information, Monitoring and MRV Development through the 3 REDD+ Phases REDD+ PHASES Phase I - Readiness - Development of P&Ms Phase II - Implementation of P&Ms and demonstration activities Phase III - Positive incentive for verified performance Year 1 Year 2 Year 3 Year... Year... Year... Year... REDD+ Safeguards Information System REDD+ Safeguards Information System Capacity building & development Monitoring System Monitoring System SLRS SLMS: AD NFI: EF MRV System GHG-I: CO2e
Monitoring Systems To assess whether REDD+ is resulting in net positive outcomes, i.e. results-based In Phase 2 of REDD+ To monitor the outcomes of demonstration activities Phase 3 In Phase 3 of REDD+ To monitor the outcomes of national policies and measures on all the national territory Phase 2 Technical requirements Satellite Land Monitoring System (operational remote sensing) Web-GIS interface (for transparency, open access)
National forest monitoring systems REDD+ MONITORING SYSTEM REMOTE SENSING WEB INTERFACE COMMUNITY MONITORING ACTIVITY DATA Satellite Land Representation System Satellite data to monitor REDD+ activities at sub-national (demonstration) and national level Disseminated over internet through a web-gis interface Measurements of area change (Activity Data) 2005
Fitting the Systems Together NATIONAL FOREST MONITORING SYSTEM REDD+ SAFEGUARDS INFORMATION SYSTEM LOCAL ENGAGEMENT COMMUNICATION REDD+ MONITORING SYSTEM REMOTE SENSING WEB INTERFACE MRV SYSTEM MEASUREMENT REPORTING DOCUMENTATION COMMUNITY MONITORING VERIFICATION
Main use: RS data used in countries -training: both in-country, HQ and INPE (so free access needed) -AD: forest area detection (changes LULC) -NFI design (multisource inventory design and stratification) -Other: R(E)L, Location of households for surveys (HR), Use of HR for field plot location, Mapping of co-benefits, Biodiversity (& other safeguards mapping) Main RS data needs from countries: -data availability and cost analysis -data acquisition (actual purchase) -data (pre)processing -generation of statistics -accuracy assessment -web dissemination
Activity data Mainly through RS for deforestation No common approach yet for forest degradation, several countries experimenting Deforestation: Degradation: Medium-resolution imagery (Landsat) High-resolution imagery Land registry (cadaster) High-resolution imagery Testing Landsat-NDVI combination Need for time series Timber records or management plans (volume harvested, species, collateral damage, skid trails, ), drones Fuelwood extraction statistics
Methodologies and technology for NFMS z Countries require easy and inexpensive access to technology and tools to generate their own AD Access to technology is quite limited, particularly for remote-sensing technologies and data The basics are often missing (e.g. steady electricity, high-speed internet, performing computers, software packages) Certain technologies are costly (e.g. HR images, Lidar, commercial software packages), limiting large-scale deployment and sustainability Ownership of data is crucial FAO Forestry Experience Lessons learned Not promote specific tools/data sets but provide overview of available options Help governments make informed decisions Support country decisions and tailor best available approaches while maintaining consistency and comparability of results Heavy reliance on complex & costly technology may not be in all developing countries best interest Open source, free software and global or nation data sets that meet REDD+ requirements are available. If not, new tools can be developed
Use of global data for national use Global data in the REDD+ context : 1) Is available, so countries can use it when there is no other data available; 2) The quality of the data at national/local scales might vary 3) Countries have the choice to use them as a) their national product without modification, b) their national product with some modification, c) an input to their national product, d) a validation dataset for their national product Map with quantitative accuracy assessment yield statistically valid estimates of land cover classes and changes. However, cartographically CORRECT maps are, however, more useful for land management and yield lower standard errors when making estimates. FAO Forestry promotes use of Landsat data for generating estimates of LCLU change at national scales. The results we get from our assistance to National counterparts should be at least similar in nature to those obtained by global products with a bit more focus on land use (instead of only land cover). FAO Forestry promotes quantitative assessments of all products intended for use as activity data inputs. This includes performing accuracy assessments and area adjustments to provide estimates on LC/LU and change.
FAO approach Seeking best way to use available data Combine data with local knowledge to produce national appropriate estimates Building national ownership in the results and capacity Range of level of engagement with global datasets: some only for comparison, some as training input, some will only use global datasets Use of global datasets as training points for a supervised classification of change at national level within the Google Earth Engine-API: examples Kenya, ROC, Ethiopia, DRC For mapping, carrying out an accuracy assessment to produce adjusted area estimates with CI: Angola
Open source tools
Implementation with R, OFGT, GDAL, SEPAL www.r-project.org www.openforis.org www.gdal.org Free and open: independent versus commercial software Reproducible: methods can be redone using the scripts Transparent : maximum transparency: all scripts available and guidance documents
SEPAL Cloud computing structure (SEPAL)
http://www.openforis.org This work was done in collaboration with FAO as a prototyping for the OpenForis system SEPAL Amazon Web Services (AWS) Cloud-based data processing workflow FAO / Norway SEPAL Progress Report 17/09/2015
SEPAL Improve connection between data / users / information products for REDD+ Increase production speed of products required for MRV Open, flexible system for rapid and standardized image processing Building national capacity for autonomous creation of national statistics: used now in 9 countries Cloud-based and desktop functionality Dense Landsat time series processing (collaboration with WUR)
OpenSARKit New openforis modules Command line tools for quasi-fully automatic preprocessing of nationwide SAR mosaics Up to date: ALOS Palsar FBD data 30m output resolution Output Stack: Backscatter values, Ratio, Texture measures, DEM + aspect + slope
Collect Earth is a tool that enables data collection through Google Earth with a sampling approach. In conjunction with Google Earth, Bing Maps and Google Earth Engine, users can analyse high and very high resolution satellite imagery for a wide variety of purposes, including : Activity data assessments of the Land Use, Land Use Change and Forestry (LULUCF) for GHG Inventories Assessment of the land use and land use change historical trends for REL/RL Support multi-phase National Forest Inventories Monitoring agricultural land and urban areas Validation of existing maps Collection of spatially explicit socio-economic data Quantifying deforestation, reforestation and desertification
Collect Earth System Overview Google Earth 3D GIS for point-based, LULUCF sampling Bing Maps Geo-link with multiple image repositories Google Earth Engine Multi-temporal analysis with 40 years of Landsat data Google Earth Engine API Trend visualization with vegetation indices Access to free, very high resolution imagery Full integration with Saiku, for mining data and generating charts and other graphics Saiku Fast, intuitive and flexible data analysis
Collect Earth System Overview
FAO-INPE collaboration
FAO-INPE collaboration Implementation of TerraAmazon in developing countries: Free-of-charge and supported by analysis and programming teams in Brazil (Funcate) and FAO HQ Training on software utilities and Brazilian national forest monitoring techniques at INPE CRA Amazonia, Belem, Brazil Close collaboration BMU ICI, UN-REDD and INPE 2015: Plug-ins in TerraAmazon Training material for radar training in development Follow-up and country implementation in FAO-HQ/country
Web portal development For transparent, real-time access to forest data and information, satellite images and forest cover change, monitoring of the implementation and impact of REDD+ policies and measures Completed: Paraguay, Ecuador Under development: meso American platform
The NFMS development by UN-REDD
Audience Country citizens are able to get acquainted about forest status without read long technical reports Policy makers can use this tool to support their legislative initiatives International GIS-RS experts can use the platform to have a glance on the overall forest dataset available
Supported countries Democratic Republic of congo Congo Republic Paraguay Ecuador Papua New Guinea Zambia Argentina Bolivia Perù Congo Cambodia Pacific Islands VietNam Bangladesh Sri Lanka Myanmar Bhutan See more at http://slms4redd.org
NFMS is an Open data portal End users browse national maps, display charts, read papers related to forest assessment and redd+ initiatives
FA FOREST COVER 2010
REDD+ Academy A package of 12 modules developed by all three UN-REDD agency partners, covering all aspects of REDD+ under the UNFCCC Regional pilot REDD+ Academy event: Yogyakarta, 2014 Regional-level REDD+ Academy ToT events: Argentina in 2015 Modules refined by UN-REDD regional team and adapted to national contexts http://www.unredd.net E-course launched
What we ve learned A few dedicated individuals can make all the difference Use of international advisors hand-in-hand with national technicians Need to see capacity building in broader terms Training of resilient national institutions and consultants Mandate of institutions should be clear Integration NFI and RS, as well as integration of global data and national (local) knowledge On-the-job training is key Trainings are geared towards producing results Essential to get faster delivery Sharing data and data access is crucial and key: data sharing agreements for national products Near-real time monitoring for early warning (e.g. Global Forest Watch), not for reporting of AD purposes in se Resilience is often at risk Easy to develop quickly elements of NFMS, but resilience will be lacking Long-term commitment is required by government and partners in order to secure sustainability
Benefits of collaboration FAO/UN-REDD+GEO-GFOI? Share expertise and skills (recognise respective strengths) Coordination on country activities/regional events Avoid overload of limited capacity Collaborate on methods (improve efficiency) Share data (sovereignty, institutional / licensing issues) Negotiate data sharing agreements jointly (+bulk buy?) Share field and RS validation data (improve accuracy, overcome institutional inconsistencies) Strive for Consistent results reduce policy confusion
Way forward Integration of existing data pre-processing and change detection algorithms as well as integration of global datsets into SEPAL preprocessing chains Approach of modules which allows the countries to pick and chose dependent on the country needs (data bulk downloading,preprocessing (geometric/radiometric), cloud masking, change detection, statistics, mapping) In-country support using best available data Practical hands-on guidance documents Ongoing and new collaborations with institutions, NGOs and academia
Thank You! Inge Jonckheere FAO-UNREDD & colleagues of FAO Forestry Inge.jonckheere@fao.org Erik.lindquist@fao.org Remi.dannunzio@fao.org Websites: http://www.un-redd.org www.slms4redd.org